Pages

Friday, September 11, 2015

The Long, Long Hike: Scavenger Printables!

Have you ever been on a hike and realized it was taking WAY
longer than you thought it would?I
mean, sometimes it doesn’t really matter, like when it’s just you and the dog
and you don’t have anywhere to be.I
really love hikes like that, they’re so peaceful and you can just explore and
be spontaneous!But, when it’s just you
and the dog and the preschooler and the toddler and getting on toward
suppertime, it gets a bit more worrisome!That was our experience yesterday as we set off to explore a new trail
system called Dorris Ranch.

Dorris Ranch
is not a ranch at all, but rather fourteen individual hazelnut groves, woodland plots
and a few open meadows on over 250 acres.The hazelnut (or filbert) groves date back to 1905 and apparently half
of our nations hazelnut trees originated from the Dorris Ranch!There are miles of winding trails through the
groves, but we naturally decided to take the shortest loop (about a half mile)
as we planned to visit a new playground as soon as we were done.Thankfully our adventure boy is in this “be
prepared for anything” stage and I’m so glad he is!He insisted on bringing his backpack with
water and trail mix and we tucked a park map in there, too. Though the colored
pencils and bungee cord were not found to be as helpful, we were prepared.

The map was nice to have, though I may not
have looked at often enough.We totally
missed our cut off trail and took a loop that ended up being well over two
miles.With the wee ones in sandals and
it getting close to dinner time.I was
bracing myself for the meltdowns, but attempted to be proactive in motivating
them and distracting them from their discomfort.And you know what?It worked!And I feel like they learned stuff, or at the very least, practiced what
they already knew.I was so pleased I
thought I’d share with you in the rare case that you might find yourself in a
similar predicament one day.But
probably not.Most people actually read
the maps they pick up for the hike!Haha! Oh, well, it was an adventure all right!

So first off, we took a lot of breaks.But not as soon as I heard a complaint.Well, toddlers don’t really do waiting very
well, so she did get carried a fair portion.But when our bigger hiker thought he could go no farther, we would pick
the farthest spot we could see to choose as a resting place.Then we would sit down, take a drink of water
and a handful of trail mix and I got to explain how muscles get stronger by
being used and how we need to feed them the protein from the nuts we were
eating (and the meat later on).We kept
that new playground as a goal when they didn’t want to get moving again.

As we trudged along we made up a sort of scavenger hunt of a
few things from the schoolbooks this morning: shapes and colors.This was such a great motivator as it kept
them engaged in their surroundings and seeking to get farther down the trail to
discover the next surprise!Here are our
results for the shapes.Some of them are
a bit of a stretch, but given the circumstances, I thought we did quite well:

Circles, ovals, triangle, square, rectangle, octagon.At one point our loop followed a paved bike
path so we were able to find many geometric shapes.

Oh, and giving points made it extra exciting.We weren’t really even counting up to
anything, but they were points! We also had the random teaching moments like
how the hazlenuts we saw lying on the ground were the hazelnut tree’s seeds and
how the whole tree grew from the little nut-seed.We talked about how the noisy wind bending
the trees’ boughs was like God: powerful and strong, but invisible.We can see what He’s doing but not God Himself.We even took time (too late) to look over the
map together and begin to talk about how they work and how they help us.Yup, I was pretty much just preaching to
myself there.And random excitement: we
found a really tame parakeet.Pretty
sure those aren’t wild around here.I
tried to catch him, but he didn’t think that was a good idea.Though he let me get close enough to touch
him several times.I didn’t even know
what to do!I’m sure he’s someone’s
escaped pet!

At last we saw the truck!And it was all downhill from there (literally and figuratively!)We made it, and with no meltdowns!Thank You, God! And for those of you curious, we found a lovely playground and stayed there until dusk and the little ones sure slept good that night! I did get to thinking these scavenger hunts might be fun to do even when not necessary. So I whipped up some check lists to use on our next hike to help keep the focus. Maybe I'll keep a pen to cross the words off or better yet: stickers! If you'd be interested in them, you can just click the photo to enlarge it and print a couple to keep in your vehicle for your next journey! Happy learning and adventuring!

About Me

Hi! I am a born-and-raised NW Washintonian, schooled in Oregon, became a nurse and then a mother in Alaska, and have just relocated back to Oregon where we hope to settle and raise our children (and some critters and gardens as well!) I've seen God work through me through his amazing wild world and feel honored to exist in the Creator's beautiful, natural creation. I want to allow my kids to experience this as well and learn from all natures complexities and simplicity. Adventures from the wilds of Alaska to great storybooks await! All photos are mine and copyrighted unless otherwise specified. Hope you enjoy!